Union to file grievance over firing officer after shooting
Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge 9 is filing a grievance against Columbus police Chief Thomas Quinlan for allegedly violating the union contract in the firing of officer Adam Coy over the fatal shooting of Andre Hill.
President Keith Ferrell said Monday that the union is filing the grievance because Quinlan specifically did not follow procedures laid out in the contract for terminating an officer.
However, Ferrell said the grievance deals with multiple issues, some of which are not specific to Coy's case.
“There are future ramifications for how officers will be treated,” he said.
Coy, a 19-year division veteran, was terminated by city Public Safety Director Ned Pettus Jr. following a short hearing on Dec. 28.
Coy was fired after shooting and killing 47-year-old Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man, within seconds of interacting with him in the garage of a home on the 1000 block of Oberlin Drive on Dec. 22.
Bodycam video shows Hill was holding a cellphone in his left hand at the time; his right hand was not visible. Coy did not turn on his body camera until after the shooting took place.
The cameras used by city police are designed with a look-back feature that captures the 60 seconds immediately before the camera was turned on.
The feature captures video, but no audio.
Hours after the shooting, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther called for Coy's firing.
Ferrell said Quinlan did not hold a hearing in his office on the evidence in the case as required by the contract.
Instead, he said, Quinlan made a recommendation for termination and sent that directly to the safety director.
“This is about the collective bargaining agreement that the city has with the FOP, similar to contracts with the fire
department, with the teachers union, with other unions throughout the city of Columbus and across Ohio,” Ferrell said.
If the union does not arbitrate Coy’s case, Ferrell said there is the potential for ramifications in how the procedure used against Coy could be used against other officers for any level of discipline, he said.
Ferrell also said the union has sent a letter to Pettus requesting an extension of the 14-day window the union has under Ohio law to determine whether to arbitrate a case.
He said the union has not been made aware of all the facts in the case, as required by law, to make a merit-based decision about whether to arbitrate Coy’s case.
As of Monday afternoon, the deadline for the extension to be granted by the city, the city had not responded to the request.
Pettus issued a statement to The Dispatch saying his office had received the letter from the union and that he understood the union’s obligation to its members.
“We are fully prepared to defend our position when arbitration is scheduled,” Pettus said.
Ferrell said the union is obligated to file a letter acknowledging that arbitration is possible in the future to preserve the contractual timeline.
“We may very possibly never arbitrate that case, but we cannot legally make that decision until we have those facts,” Ferrell said of the Coy case. “There’s a misconception that we fight for every officer in every case. There does come a point in time when we don’t file for arbitration.” bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner